frist post!
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tuxchick2 Jun 15, 2006 1:18 PM EDT |
Yay, I get to be the first to say "Now he can spend every day giving away some of the billions he extorted from his customers. How special." |
| dinotrac Jun 15, 2006 1:22 PM EDT |
tc: To be honest, I don't care if he's doing it to salve a guilty consciensce, to secure his place in history, whatever. If he helps a bunch of kids in the process, I will happily line to say "You go, Bill!!" I long ago ceased to worry about the underlying motives in such things. If want to do good, I'll cheer you on. Frankly, the world and its children need to many things not to. So...You go, Bill. Just so long as you, er..., go. |
| jimf Jun 15, 2006 3:14 PM EDT |
The SOB has 30 billion in his fund, most of that extorted from Americans and Europeans, guess how much of that will go to India. |
| jdixon Jun 15, 2006 5:09 PM EDT |
> guess how much of that will go to India. Yeah. He's obviously never checked out the American Indian reservations, just for starters. They need the aid as badly as any third world country. |
| jimf Jun 15, 2006 5:37 PM EDT |
He never puts money anywhere unless he is looking for a return. Now if American Indians are willing to study programming, and work for pennies on the dollar... |
| grouch Jun 15, 2006 6:01 PM EDT |
Let me add a voice of cynicism. Someone must have produced a report explaining how it will be obvious to everyone by 2008 that MS products are no match for GNU/Linux and the rest of the FOSS world of software. Chairman Bill, believing his place in history is secured, does not want to be associated with the fall of the empire. Like all robber barons of the past, he now wants to buy good will with philanthropy, hoping everyone forgets how the horde of gold was acquired. |
| Libervis Jun 15, 2006 6:03 PM EDT |
If he's going to give more to the poor and needy then sure, you go Bill! :) That however wont change the fact that he contributed alot to creating a world that favors a rich elite rather than a reasonable distribution of wealth. Microsoft's monopoly is a tribute to that. His opposition to Free Software is also essentially opposition to one of the elements of long term solution for the poor and developing nations. He can give awesome quantities of money, but Free Software gives free access to knowledge and code at practically no cost aside from the cost of a computer (which OLPC project he bashed upon is working on) and this knowledge has the power to generate a value multiple times greater than any donated sum of money. So sure, every wound he manages to patch up with his money is a wound patched up, but he opened alot of wounds too and still opposes to the real cure. |
| dinotrac Jun 15, 2006 6:18 PM EDT |
Libervis -- And you such a young soul to understand so well!! The more Bill wants to give to do actual good things the more I am willing to applaud. I'll stand and whistle if that will convince him to give even more. Will any of it make him a good guy? Nope. Will any of it make his business practices any less reprehensible? Nope. Does any of that matter? Not if he really and truly helps a noticable number of people in a noticable way. History won't forget how he got all that loot. Kids who need help won't much care where he got it. I will happily go out of earshot for my tsk-tsks for as long as Billy Boy is determined to do actual tangible good in this world. |
| number6x Jun 16, 2006 5:10 AM EDT |
In Regards to his knowledge of life on American Indian Reservations, Bill Gates should be somewhat familiar with them. Bill Gates did spend a lot of time in Albuquerque back in the seventies when Micro Soft (that was its name back then) was a small start up company there. Although it is a long way from the big Res. on the Arizona/New Mexico border, Albuquerque is surrounded by several large reservations. I know that MS used to recruit heavily at my old school New Mexico Tech in Socorro. Its hard to miss the Isleta Pueblo on the drive South from Albuquerque. The Reservations did not have casino's back in the Seventies and the sources of income available were very limited. The poverty was very evident. I have never met the man, but I can say that it would be difficult to live in New Mexico for any length of time during the era Mr. Gates was there, and not be exposed to the poverty Native Americans were living in. Nowdays, for the wealthy, it would be easy to live there in some gated enclave and never experience anything outside your country club and your ski lodge. My best informed guess is, Bill Gates is aware of the poverty experienced by Native Americans, even if only from glimpses while driving on I-25. I hope that he does a great deal of good with his money, and that he builds a foundation that continues good works for generations to come. |
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